Using Inerter for Offshore Floating Platform Vibration Control

Offshore floating platforms (OFPs) are widely used in offshore industries for oil exploration and exploitation. Harsh environmental loads such as wind and sea waves may induce excessive vibrations to OFPs and endanger their safety. Inerter, which can produce a considerable apparent mass that is much larger than its physical mass through an amplifying mechanism by translating the linear motion into high-speed rotational motion, has been adopted for structural vibration control recently. The authors proposed using inerter for OFP vibration control. This paper will summarize the corresponding research works carried out by the authors in this area. In particular, analytical and experimental studies will be reported in detail.